The Last Night Out - The Women are almost Gone

Last post about the terrific Bridal Shower/Bachlorette Party weekend.

On Monday night we took the last of them out for some good fish in the Cape. Darin and I live about 30 minutes from Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach. If you like fish, it's a great place to live... drool.

Took them to our favorite place there - Rustys. It was a perfect way to end a great week (if I don't say so myself.)

Took pictures of us each individually. Don't know why I didn't take any of us as a group... Thought they were cute so I decided to post about it!

They left the next day, and Darin was once again Man of the House.

Mom with coconut shrimp

Margie with fried shrimp

Dru with jerk chicken. She doesn't eat fish.

I got shrimp scampi. It was good. Very good.

Darin with grouper fingers

Sorry this was a kind of boring post, but wanted to show pictures for my mom so she would remember we live less than thirty minutes from fresh fish. And this would make her want to visit more. (Same with Margie, though she lives pretty close to fresh fish too - but she gets to see Jake too. So...) Maybe next time they'll bring along some men for Darin to bond with. :)

The Unforgettable Party

Saturday night (night of the Bridal Shower), we took advantage of everyone being in town to try and get me as drunk as possible. Super.

Got all dolled up in our cute outfits and met at Carrie's house for some penis cake and pigs in the blanket. Melissa (with help) crafted the penis cake out of left over Costco chocolate banana cream cake that we ate the night before.

Said penis cake.

We weren't sure whether it looked like a penis or scissors. Kind of hard to tell with the chocolate swirls everywhere. Tried our damnest to make key lime martinis - ended up drinking a lot of appletinis. Got friends Sarah and Becky to try them and they now are appletini girls!

LaShan, Del, and Kucku.
Key lime martini and a pig in the blanket.
Good combination.

LaShan and Dru. They bonded.



Opened more presents!
Seriously, how crazy was this? Can you see it?





Got dressed up (thanks Melissa!) and headed out.

Went downtown to Wall Street and Chillers. It was a crazy night. I had these dice they made me roll: Dance With/Tell a Joke To/etc a Bald/Tall/Cute Guy. So I did... after a couple of drinks.

The dice. Pink dice.

Rollin'



KC was just waiting to try herself...



At Latitudes...
Becky, Sarah, Kucku, Del, KC, Dru, and Carrie



What?!
Almost everyone - no LaShan.



The ladies:
Carrie, Sarah, Del, Diana, and Becky
(And I have no idea where we were.)

The cleavage picture we sent to Maggie.
It was entertaining.



My Bridesmaids (missing Julie):
Melissa, KC, and Dru



Carrie, Kucku, and Del
(with random guy)



Melissa, Carrie, LaShan, Kucku, Del, Sarah, and Becky
(with random guy)

I also was wearing this spinning pin. I think it was the thing that had "tell a joke" on it. I told some stupid ass jokes. Well, I don't think they're stupid, but I guess everyone else did...

Do NOT remember this.

Also had "give a dollar"

The spin...

And the dollar.
I was very proud.

After trying to escape the club and find Darin (he stopped by for a second and left very quickly), finding everyone else again, going dancing on Wall Street and seeing Angie, going to the Lodge - why why - I felt like I was doing pretty good. Guess the car didn't quite agree with me...

Post Puke Del.

And they were mean and took pictures of me throwing up (which I will not post because it's my blog). But Dru thought this was the best picture. I kind of look like death a little.

It was definitely a memorable experience (from what I actually remember), and I had a great time. We did everything I wanted to do - and I didn't have to drink any stupid shots or kiss any gross guys. Ick. Just fun times and dice. Can wait until all you single ladies who get married and have bachlorette parties... I can and will take LOTS of pictures. :)

Bridal Shower, Take Two

After I opened presents, some of the important ladies in Darin and my life were asked to participate in a fun Bridal Shower game. It was uber fun. Ha. And I wasn't the one being embarrassed.

Mom, Carol (Darin's mother), Margie (my 'second' Mom and KC's Mom), and Daryl (Courtney's Mom, Mike - Darin's best friend's Mom, Carries MIL, and Darin's 'second' Mom) were the brides.

Daryl's Group:
Kucku, Courtney, and Becky



Watching the Show
Janice, Cathy, Del, Maggie, and DJ

First there was my Mother. She was doing some sort of dance, the shag? I don't know. Nobody really knew...

Headband and all.

Then there was Carol. She was the most graceful of the bunch. And had real flowers. Also, if you look really hard you can see the spaghetti straps. Sigh.

Look at those gloves?!

Next was Margie. I personally liked her outfit the best - really because of the top criss-cross pattern. It was very classy.

Margie with her haute couture TP

And last, but NOT least, was Daryl. She kind of was having a hard time walking as she was in a walking cast and kept tripping on her dress hem. So she decided to just do a strip tease!

Only the top left!



Aren't they beautiful!
They all just looked so happy.

It was an excellent way to end a fantastic party. Thanks for the fun memories - and pictures to boot.

Bridal Shower, Take One

On January 24th, a wonderful event took place: my Bridal Shower. And it was wonderful in every way. People came from all over the country and North America, from all around Orlando, and got together to be with me. And of course to give me presents.

I am so thankful to each and every one of them. It was truly amazing.

My sister decided to hold it at the Gaylord Palms Resort and off we went. If you ever have been to this place or have seen it, you would know that it was huge. H.U.G.E. We got a little lost wondering around the wilderness area - but finally found the Pineapple Room. It was a nice room all to ourselves (we could be as loud as we wanted) and right next to the buffet area. Perfect. We were in the Villa de Flora area. The food was Spanish inspired (but with olives galore, for Jill...) and so good. And the dessert. Oh the dessert. Here was a picture:

Only half of the dessert. Plus there was an ice cream bar.

Enough about the food.

Dru, Melissa, KC, and LaShan got there early to set up while I arrived with the 'older' ladies. Here was what they did - it was beautiful!

The tables (with flowers!)

Presents galore.

We waited (patiently) for everyone to show up and then chowed down!

Clockwise: Dru, KC, Kucku, Janice, Del
(and Melis taking picture)



Becky, LaShan, and Raji also chowing down.

After a fun little Del quiz (which Melissa won by the way) and me having to tell everyone Jake's full name (Jacob Tiger, people), we got to the good part... presents.

First one!
(Watch as my dress slowing creeps up my legs. Sigh.)



KC, the present bringer and taker



Watchers to the Left:
KC, Mom, Margie, Becky, and LaShan



Watchers in Front:
Daryl, Maggie, Courtney, and Jill



Del with great bowl. Loved it!



Mom and Del. Love you.

And this was what they made me do. It was LaShan's idea, and I blame her 100%. We did the traditional rehearsal bouquet out of ribbons (I only tore one, so that means one child...), and then they made me put it on my head. But I looked cute, so why not?

I can't even being to say how surprised I was by how generous people were. I must have some pretty terrific friends. Thanks SO much. Loved everything!

P.S. And no pictures of the cute little naughties I was given. I'll try to add some later...

Initital Festivities

So, the weekend of the 24th of January was my Bridal Shower. A whole bunch of wonderful people came into town to celebrate with me and give me presents. How great was that? My Mom and sister, Dru, came in on Wednesday night (from Seattle); Maggie came in on Thursday morning (from St. Louis) and KC on Thursday afternoon (from Guelph, Canada); Margie, Friday morning (from Pawleys, SC), and LaShan (from Clemson, SC) and Melissa (from Carlsbad, CA) on Friday night.

Thanks guys for flying all this way!

Thursday night (after a day of shopping), we went to Houlihans for dinner. Thanks Maggie! Had a terrific meal and some nummy drinks. Love love love the key lime martini.

Maggie, Mom, and Del
(Those were my martinis...)



The pretties...
(If you've noticed, I've gotten these before.)



Dru and KC. Yo.

Friday was Airport Day. Went three times to two different airports. Yikes. Poor Honey was confused (that's my car...). Darin and I also decided to try to smoke some ribs again for a special dinner.

KC and Jakey. She missed her pups, Lilly and Macy.
Jake also missed them and wants them to visit.

Jake was in heaven the whole time everyone was here - just because so many people took him for walks/runs and gave him extra food. Mom even bought some raw hide bones for him because she felt he was not getting enough treats. (He normally doesn't get them!)

Dinner was served - ribs and chicken with lots of veggies! Also TOO much stuff was bought from Costco and consumed.

L to R:
Mom, Dru, Del, Maggie, Darin, Margie, LaShan, KC, and Melissa
(missing Jake - probably under table by Melissa)

The older ladies decided to stay at a hotel for the visit, so when I was driving them there the rest of the ladies made the beautiful flower arrangements and favors for my Bridal Shower. Loved them!

KC, Melissa, and LaShan

While they were busy in the kitchen, Darin hid himself in the other room with Jake. There were a LOT of women around that weekend - poor Darin found himself kicked out of his office and wondering around looking for a place just for him.

On the couch in the other room!

More pictures of the Bridal Shower to follow.